OTTAWA – A collection of Canada’s leading cultural organizations emerged from a meeting with the federal culture minister and several of her provincial/territorial counterparts Monday, united in their determination to see a Canadian-originated treaty on cultural protection enshrined in international law.
While free trade deals and WTO wrangling sort out how countries sell each other commercial goods and services, few international statutes define the treatment of cultural products such as TV programs, films, music, books and magazines.
The UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) convention on cultural diversity – recognizing every sovereign state’s right to create, support and protect distinct cultural contents – is headed for debate on the floor of the organization’s General Conference, which commenced Monday in Paris. Based on earlier response, observers expect this convention to be adopted by the conference in the third week of this month.
The convention, says Heritage Minister Liza Frulla, “confirms the social and economic nature of the cultural industries,” she says, adding that the social importance of Canada’s home-grown stories transcends the $35 billion in annual revenue and 650,000 jobs linked to cultural industries.
While this convention, which Canada began developing in 1998, may seem to be another vague international document generated by a UN body, Frulla told reporters in Ottawa Monday it will have concrete applications at home. “It treats the cultural industries differently (from other trade goods and services). It’s the document we’ll have to refer to when discussing cultural identity.”
More concretely, as far as policymakers such as the CRTC are concerned, she continues, “it permits us to adopt federal cultural policy… It permits us to support the film industry and the music industry (for instance). They’re strong, but we want to continue to support them.”
The issue of Canadian cultural subsidies, and those used by other countries, has sparked international trade debates for decades. But the biggest impetus to bring together 38 organizations – representing broadcasters, artists, musicians, producers and others – in the Montreal-based Coalition for Cultural Diversity is linked to the near trade war in 1999 when Canada tried to stop magazines like U.S.-owned Sports Illustrated from doing “split-run” editions in Canada, with Canadian ads.
But Canada was forced to dilute the Foreign Publishers Advertising Services Act, eventually allowing 8% more Canadian ads than it had intended. CCD co-chair and actor Pierre Curzi says Canadians then recognized cultural industries were isolated because they were not covered by trade agreements. “We saw that if we’re going to be alone, there’s no hope for us,” he says, adding this was apparent in the recent CRTC licensing decision on satellite radio.
But, he says, Canadians weren’t only looking to develop a UNESCO convention for “a counterpoint to powerful American culture” because cultural imperialism affects many other jurisdictions, such as the Latin American countries vis-à-vis Spain. When smaller markets want access to larger markets, he points out, the larger countries say, “we won’t sign this trade deal unless you improve access to your market for our entertainment companies,” for example.
The United States has consistently opposed the convention, known officially as The Convention on the Protection and Promotion of the Diversity of Cultural Expressions. As Frulla points out, “The United States is concerned that there will be confusion between cultural matters and commercial trade matters,” but in her view, “cultural products cannot be considered commercial products like any other.”
While some journalists focused Monday on Quebec’s role in pushing for the adoption of the convention, Frulla and Line Beauchamp, her Quebec counterpart, repeated that the Canadian consensus represents Quebec’s concerns adequately. CCD co-chair Scott McIntyre, president and publisher at Vancouver’s Douglas & McIntyre, adds that “the passionate energy” to see the convention adopted and ratified “guides English Canada as well. It’s not only about central Canada. The rest of the country gets it….The gift of cultural diversity is enormous.”
Despite American opposition, the convention is expected to pass. In addition to the advantages already mentioned, it will also: “recognize in international law the distinctive nature of cultural goods and services as vehicles of values, identity and meaning”; “assert the principle of non-subordination – meaning the legal status of the convention in international law will be equal to that of other international treaties, including trade agreements”; and, “include a basic dispute settlement mechanism.” Lobbying will then focus on encouraging 30 nations to ratify it so it will come into force.
Susan Tolusso is an Ottawa-based freelance writer.
